Oakland Ballers fans excited to purchase ownership shares in team
By Andrea Nakano
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OAKLAND, California (KPIX) — While the A’s are getting ready to say goodbye to Oakland, some baseball fans are banking on the team across town to be a big success.
The Ballers are offering fans a chance to become owners in a way that’s never been done in professional sports. T.J. Jones-Heintz has joined more than 1,600 other fans to become a shareholder in the Oakland Ballers.
“I have a lot of pride in that,” she said. “I like to tell my friends and say, ‘Hey, look what I did.’ It’s cool.”
Jones-Heintz sits right behind home plate to cheer on her team. Like many, her heart was broken by the A’s as they uprooted from Oakland to move to Sin City.
“When you love a baseball team since you’re 12,” said Jones-Heintz. “That’s a big deal. I have all the baseball cards and all of that. It’s sad.”
The Ballers have seen just how much people love the game. Just a week into their crowdfunding campaign, they’ve raised nearly $1.1 million.
“What this overwhelming support shows is that fans really want another team to be here and they want a team that’s committed to being here,” said Oakland Ballers co-founder Paul Freedman. “They want a team they can be part of.”
According to Freedman, this is unlike the public ownership of the Green Bay Packers which is a nonprofit corporation. Fans will have a chance to cash in on the Ballers success and they will have a fan representative on the Board of Directors.
“We’re also giving fans a right to vote on certain important things directly like should the team move, can we change the logo, and so this is really giving fans a seat at the table where we think they deserve to be,” he said.
It’s a new concept for these fans that have rode the decades long relocation saga with the A’s. Raimondi Park is a place they can call home and be invested in a team that’s committed to the Town.
“I’m going to move on and keep having fun in Oakland,” said Jones-Heintz.
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